XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: mr@sandman.net   
      
   In article ,   
    Lewis  wrote:   
      
   > > Only, that was not something done by the ring. He lusted for power in   
   > > the same way most people would. The ring for him was a means for that   
   > > power. I am trying to make a distinction between Sarumen being   
   > > "corrupted" simply by wanting to have more power, and "corrupted" as   
   > > an active force by the ring, which incidentally doesn't actually seem   
   > > to exercise a force to make you want to use it for world dominantion   
   > > (in spite of what Tolkien himself says).   
   >   
   > I disagree. The Ring, inasmuch as it was possible, was searching for a   
   > power able and willing to wield it. That is not to say that it was   
   > active in its search;lets think of it, perhaps, as a force like gravity,   
   > bending the world around it so that things fall toward it. Saruman fell.   
      
   Gandalf explicitly states that the ring wanted to be found and wanted   
   to get back to its master, not that it sought someone powerful to   
   wield it.   
      
   There is nothing in the books that suggest that the will of the ring   
   had any remote effect at all upon Saruman. The corruption of Saruman   
   was solely the inherit corruption in himself - i.e. lust for power.   
   The ring was a means for that lust, not a source of it.   
      
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)